Two Songs for Baritone, B13

Opus number

Burghauser catalogue number

13

Date of composition

24 October 1865

Premiere - date and place

1. května 2014, Ostrava

Premiere performer(s)

Tomáš Král, Róbert Pechanec

First edition

not yet published

Author of the text

Adolf Heyduk

Parts / movements

1. If dear maiden you upon a throne were seated (Kdybys, milé děvče, sedalo na trůnu)
2. If you were born to be a song (A kdybys písní stvořená)

These two short songs are a document of young Dvořák’s first encounter with the poems of Adolf Heyduk, whose oeuvre he subsequently used for his vocal works on several occasions. Both songs were written during the course of a single day, 24 October 1865, and, after the cycle Cypresses, they are the second surviving work by Dvořák in this genre. Yet, in their simplicity and fairly unremarkable melody, they cannot match the significance of Cypresses. Dvořák dedicated them to a friend, from whose estate the autograph score was purchased by the state in 1919. The first known performance took place only on 1 May 2014 at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava.